Various techniques can be used to collect data relating to underwater hydrocarbon reserves (e.g., to detect the presence of naturally occurring seafloor seepage) or relating to underwater infrastructure transporting fluid that contains hydrocarbons (e.g., to assess pipeline integrity). Reflection seismology or non-seismic detection technologies such as magnetometers are typically used. More specifically for a marine environment, satellite and airborne imaging, or shipborne multibeam imaging together with drop core sampling are often used.
To gather data closer to the seabed, tethered or untethered remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) can be used. These vehicles are typically expensive and require extensive surface support. Conventional ocean gliders are able to glide at a depth of up to 1000 m to gather hydrocarbon data, and thus are limited to gathering data at relatively shallow depths. Furthermore, although fluorometer-type sensors for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) have been proposed for use with gliders, these sensors are often too large and consume too much power to be integrated into conventional gliders.
As described above, existing approaches are typically costly, and have a number of other limitations. Therefore it would be useful to have an alternative underwater system and/or method for gathering hydrocarbon data.